James Stephens Quotes

22 Sourced Quotes

What the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow.

James Stephens
Women and birds are able to see without turning their heads, and that is indeed a necessary provision for they are both surrounded by enemies.

James Stephens
I would think Until I found Something I can never find; - Something Lying On the ground, In the bottom Of my mind.

James Stephens
A woman is a branchy tree and man a singing wind; and from her branches carelessly he takes what he can find.

James Stephens
We get wise by asking questions, and even if these are not answered we get wise, for a well-packed question carries its answer on its back as a snail carries its shell.

James Stephens
Is it not possible that the ultimate end is gaiety and music and a dance of joy?

James Stephens
The duty of a lyrical poet is not to express or explain, it is to intensify life.

James Stephens
Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it.

James Stephens
Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.

James Stephens
I would think
Until I found
Something
I can never find;
– Something
Lying
On the ground,
In the bottom
Of my mind.

James Stephens
Tell me your past, my beloved, for a man is his past, and is to be known by it.

James Stephens
Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will. Indeed, it has led many people into dangers which mere physical courage would shudder away from, for hunger and love and curiosity are are the great impelling forces of life.

James Stephens
If I asked her master he'd give me a cask a day;
But she, with the beer at hand, not a gill would arrange!
May she marry a ghost and bear him a kitten, and may
The High King of Glory permit her to get the mange.

James Stephens
Speech and prose are not the same thing. They have different wave-lengths, for speech moves at the speed of light, where prose moves at the speed of the alphabet, and must be consecutive and grammatical and word-perfect. Prose cannot gesticulate. Speech can sometimes do nothing else.

James Stephens
I hear a sudden cry of pain!
There is a rabbit in a snare:
Now I hear the cry again,
But I cannot tell from where…
Little one! Oh, little one!
I am searching everywhere.

James Stephens
Let the past be content with itself, for man needs forgetfulness as well as memory

James Stephens
People say: 'Of course, they will be beaten.' The statement is almost a query, and they continue, 'but they are putting up a decent fight.' For being beaten does not matter greatly in Ireland, but not fighting does matter.

James Stephens
And, in cloud, and clod, to Sing
Of Everything and Anything!

James Stephens
Because our lives are cowardly and sly,
Because we do not dare to take or give,
Because we scowl and pass each other by,
We do not live; we do not dare to live.

James Stephens
They fell out over pigs, let them fall in over pigs.

James Stephens
In my definition they were good men—men, that is, who willed no evil. No person living is the worse off for having known Thomas MacDonagh.

James Stephens
Forgive us all our trespasses,
Little creatures, everywhere!

James Stephens